Improvement in water-wheels



i r UNITED STATE-s PATENT OFFICE.

IMPROVEMENT IN WATER-WH EELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 57,089, dated August14, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be itknown that LWALTER R. CLOSE, of Bangor, in the county of Penobscotand State of Maine, have invented an Improved Water- Wheel; and l dohereby declare the same to be fully described in the followingspecification, and represented in the accompanying drawings, of whichiFigure l is a top View, Fig. 2 a side elevation, and Fig. 3 a transversesection, of it.

The said water-wheel is what is termed a utter-wheel,7 and is intendedto be cast in one piece of metal and so as to be readily fixed to avertical wooden shaft.

For this purpose the central part of the wheel is to consist of ametallic cylindrical tube, c, having a hat annular ange, b, projectingfrom its bottom. A series of oats or wings, c c o c, extend from thetube a, in manner and are formed as represented in the drawings, and attheir lower ends they are joined to the flange b, and also to alatannulus, d, which is concentric with the ilange b. Those parts of theannulus d which are between the wings are curved or arched, as shown inFig. 2, the purpose oi' such arch being to enable the ring d, while thewater-wheel is in revolution, to exert an action on the water such aswill tend to cause it to press the wheel upward more or less, and thusrelieve the step and pivot of the water-Wheel shaft from the frictionwhich would otherwise be induced by the weight of the Wheel.

By making the wheel with the tubular part a, it can be tted toa woodenshaft, and by applyingto the tube et the ange, which projects from it, Inot onlyrprevent the tube from being cracked, but give increased supportto the Wings, each of which, where it crosses the outer annulus, is bentso as to extend across the same at right angles toit. This bend of eachwing is shown at e, and causes the water, when it first strikes thewheel, to do so square to the bucket, whereby its useful effect isincreased over what it would be were the curve of the wing continuedacross the bucket.

I claim- The improved water-wheel, made substantially as described-viz.,with the arched annulus, the series of curved and bent wings,

and the shaft-tube, or the same and its ange,

arranged as set forth.

W. R; CLOSE.

Witnesses:

DANIEL SANBOEN, Asn W. PITMAN.

